Dear Editors,
We gratefully thank the researcher Erkan Coben for his interest in and comment on our study [1] that was published in Polish Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. We would like to alleviate the anxiety of the author and therefore decided to answer his comment. Laboratory tests, including blood morphology, were performed in accordance with our institutional guidelines and regulations. Blood samples were collected at the admission of the patients into tubes containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and analyzed with a routine hematology analyzer (Sysmex Europe GmbH, Norderstedt, Germany) within 30 minutes of sample collection as described in the article.
Mean platelet volume (MPV) reflects platelet size and indicates changes in platelet production and activation [2]. Elevated MPV was described as a predictor of mortality in critically ill patients, severity of arterial hypertension and coronary artery disease. Moreover, it was associated with inflammation in malignant tumors and atherosclerosis [3]. MPV and other simple inflammatory markers obtained from whole blood count analysis are considered to be reliable prognostic markers in off-pump surgery [4].
The laboratory analysis of blood samples is a standard of care in current medicine. The study aimed to determine the relation between pre-operative and post-operative MPV and post-operative PCI risk in patients with complex coronary artery disease undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting in off-pump technique. We concluded that MPV is a simple marker of PCI risk following OPCAB procedures. We assure the commentary author that he can confidently use MPV in his daily clinical assessment.
